Postcard from San Diego

Trip Odometer 3603

We’ve been enjoying 18 days (mostly) in San Diego, and still have some more to go! We had aspirations for doing some camping in deserts and canyons, but the truth is, it is cold out there. We are comfortable in the camper at colder climes, but the making dinner in the evening and coffee in the morning can be challenging. So, we’ve been taking advantage of our friends visiting and residing in San Diego to find shelter and adventure in this fun town.

We spent the first week plus with Grace and Charlie (and Good Dog Chloe!) just a short walk from Pacific Beach. There’s a string of different beaches along the San Diego coast. Each beach has its own style and flavor. Pacific Beach is clearly the laid-back surfer-forward beach, and that suited us just fine.

Feb 2: We took a day trip to Torrey Pines National Reserve. It was no fun to drive there, but the hike and the views were really nice.

Feb 3: One thing we love about San Diego is there are so many places that are straightforward with their name. Like, right down the road from where we are now there is a place called San Diego Chicken Pie Shop. What do you think they serve there? We took a nice bike ride around Mission Bay that included a stop at a great place called “Ceviche and Beer”.

Feb 4: To help get the Betty Mobile designed, I used an online service called Upwork, and wound up working with architect Aaron Jarrett, who lives in San Diego. He was thrilled when we met up so he could see the thing we had both labored on.

Feb 5: We took a day trip to the slot canyon at Anza Borrego with Grace and Charlie. This was a beautiful drive through mountains, grassy valleys, and then straight-up desert. On the way back we stopped at the small town of Julian, which is apparently famous for their apple pies. Now this is a town of just 1300 people. And somehow, even though it was a late Sunday afternoon, the place was packed with tourists. And they were all standing in lines 20 people deep at the five or six different apple pie shops on the street. Now you do the math here, and it would seem that just about every adult resident of Julian must somehow be in the apple pie business. I wonder if the teens in Julian must feel resigned to their fate of spending their days churning out pies for the masses.

Feb 9-10: We moved from Pacific Beach to our harpist friend Candace’s little hideaway up in Hillcrest (we have the Betty Mobile stashed at her mom’s house next door). Candace had a busy weekend coming up, so we decided it was time to hitch up the wagon again and do some camping in nearby Ramona. It felt good to pull the camper again, and once we were parked in our little spot at Dos Picos County Park, we got lots of nods about how cute our camper was. This was also our first opportunity to get our tent out and experience the full set-up.

We didn’t do much exploring over the weekend, instead focusing on getting the camping part of our traveling sorted out. The weather even gave us an opportunity to experience how our camp handles the rain. At some point there will be a fully designed and fitting tarp solution for the Betty Mobile, but for now, we are using the tried and true tarp method.

One other thing we learned from the rain (not pictured) is that with the galley hatch open, water can find its way into the top shelf of the galley – the one with all the electrical wiring. That wiring passes through holes in the shelf (which haven’t been properly sealed). Those holes lead into Mathew’s clothing closet. Luckily his base layer of t-shirts soaked up all the water, and we had a pretty dry night.

Over the course of our San Diego adventuring we’ve also been making connections for an exciting twist to our traveling adventure: pet (and other animal) sitting. We are using two online services, Trusted House Sitters and House Sitters America. We’ve lined up FOUR sitting jobs already, and have turned down as many offers from folks who are cold-contacting us with offers! This is going to work out great for us, as we need to start heading northward to catch a nephew’s college recital and connect with friends and family along the way. With the consistent cold this season, house camping is going to be preferable to outside camping until we get to a proper spring.

Spoiler: there will be dogs, of course, but also goats, chickens, and at least one house-pig coming up.